“Delaying implementation until 2014 helped the president win re-election, but now the bill is coming due. The administration can’t forestall Obamacare’s massive regulatory impact any longer, and the result will keep Congress and the media occupied for months and years to come.”
Details“There’s a pretty stark choice for states to make on health-insurance exchanges right now: They can decide to set one up. Or they can decide not to. Those, along with one choice where the state and feds divvy up the responsibilities, are the options on the table. That seems to be true everywhere — except Utah. There, Gov. Gary Herbert is trying to carve out a completely new option: Building a health insurance exchange that is near certainly out of compliance with the federal law, and seeing how the Obama administration responds.”
Details“While other Republican governors are starting to back away from their opposition to implementing a key part of President Obama’s health care law, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said Tuesday that he’s not reconsidering.”
Details“The House Ways and Means Committee has subpoenaed Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, demanding that she reveal details of how the agency is promoting the health reform law, according to the committee.
The election may have iced efforts to repeal the law on the whole, but House Republicans are indicating they’re full speed ahead on intense oversight of how the Obama administration is enacting the legislation.”
“Immediately after the presidential election, and more than a week ahead of the Nov. 16 deadline, Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon, a Democrat, announced he had made up his mind. The state would not be setting up its own health insurance exchange. Next door in Kansas, Gov. Sam Brownback, a Republican, made a similar announcement.”
Details“The Obama administration said Thursday it will give states an extra month to decide whether they plan to implement the core piece of President Obama’s healthcare law. States were initially supposed to decide by Friday whether they would run their own insurance exchanges. But on the eve of that deadline, HHS told Republican governors they could have until Dec. 14 to make that call.”
Details“A top American bishop said Tuesday the Roman Catholic church will not comply with the Obama administration requirement that most employers provide health insurance covering birth control. New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said church leaders are open to working toward a resolution with federal officials, but will meanwhile press ahead with challenges to the mandate in legislatures and in court.”
Details“Another Republican governor on Tuesday formally refused to set up an insurance exchange under President Obama’s healthcare law. Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley said the state will not establish an exchange and also will not participate in the law’s Medicaid expansion.”
Details“ObamaCare requires the collection of vast amounts of sensitive personal health data. Naturally its proponents swear that such information will be strictly confidential. Tax preparers are one group that knows that such government promises cannot be relied upon.”
Details“While the future of the 2010 health care law stabilized with the re-election of President Obama, both Democrats and Republicans say now is the time for them to come together to fix it… Until Tuesday, when Obama’s future was determined, Republicans opposed to the law waited for a change in administrations that would allow them to repeal the law. That will not happen now with a Democrat in the White House for the next four years… But changes are imminent.”
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